How to Find a Hiring Manager’s Contact Information

How to Find a Hiring Manager’s Contact Information

By HEATHER HUHMAN
Posted: June 10, 2011

You’ve applied for a job opening through a job board, corporate careers site, or to anonymous email address in hopes of getting a call back and maybe even landing an interview. But a week or so passes by, and you’re still waiting to hear about your application.

How do you follow up when the initial job advertisement didn’t list any contact information? It’s time to start researching. Here’s how:

Scour the company website for a name. Look through the “About us” section of the organization’s website to determine the name of the hiring manager. You might even be lucky enough to find a company directory of employees with names and email addresses.

Call the receptionist. Even if the job ad says, “No calls,” you can still call the front desk in hopes of getting a name of the right person. Depending upon the company’s policies, this person may or may not be able to give you the individual’s contact information, but being polite and friendly to the secretary can go a long way.

Use social networks. Many professionals are now active on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and list their job titles in the biography section of these sites. If you happen to find the correct individual, click on any links they’ve provided to see if you can figure out their email address. It may also be listed in their headline, biography, or contact information on the site.

Make use of online tools and search engines. Websites like Jigsaw are a good place to start when looking for a hiring manager’s contact information. If you can’t find his or her email address through online directories, type key words and phrases into Google (or another search engine) to try to uncover the correct address. For example, if you know the hiring manager’s name is Jane Doe, type “Jane Doe” “@xyzcompany.com.” If you do not know her name, type “hiring manager” or “department” and “XYZ Company.”

Call after hours. After employees have gone home for the day, the automated answering service picks up the company line and often provides a directory for individuals wishing to reach its employees. Listen through the departments to determine who you’re looking for. Once you’re redirected to a voicemail box, take note of the name the individual provides that you can then research online.

Look at other company email addresses. If you already know the hiring manager’s name, you can often guess their email address by modeling it after other addresses. For example, if you find john.doe@xyzcompany.com listed on the company website, it’s likely that the hiring manager, Jane Doe, has the email address jane.doe@xyzcompany.com. If it’s not correct, it will often come back to you—no harm done. You can also use free email verifying tools, such as verify-email.org, to determine if the email address is correct before you send it.

What’s your favorite tactic for figuring out someone’s contact information? Send to CB@exec-leadershipllc.com